Preparing Your Home For Winter

Yes, it’s that time of year again to start thinking about how you will organize, clean, maintain, and repair one of your biggest investments — your home. Autumn is a great time to get out your gloves and rake and take advantage of the few good sunny days left to do all the maintenance on your house list. You always want your home to be in the best condition possible, especially if your thinking about selling, because if you keep up maintenance when you go to sell, it will be a breeze.

1. Remove the leaves from your roof, downspouts, gutters, and lawn. Leaves that build up in your gutters can create ice dams, and potential water damage when it snows or during a rain storm. This task is relatively easy and you can do it yourself saving on cost just make sure you use proper ladder safety. Contrary to what you might think leaves left on your lawn can cause mold and fungus to breed causing a science experiment to happen on your beautiful lawn. Don’t let it!
2. Any missing or loose roof shingles need to be replaced ASAP. One terrific rainstorm is all it takes for water to find it’s way under a loose shingle causing water damage to the inside of your house. Preventive maintenance goes along away when you think about the cost to replace a few shingles versus the amount it will cost you to replace sections of your whole house because water found it’s way into your home. Batten down the hatches!!
3. Your chimney needs to be tended to as well. Most likely the old soot and debris from last winter is still in place on the inside of the chimney and needs a good sweep and cleaning. Check the chimney cover as well as sometimes critters take up residence there.
4. Checking your smoke alarm and carbon monoxide detectors is a good idea. Do this every spring and fall.
5. Have your heat and AC filters changed when fall rolls in. Systems function better when filters are clean. If your home is older, have pets, or dust you might need to check them more frequently.
6. Caulking around your windows might be in order. Go around and inspect for worn out caulking and replace if necessary. This task can be easily done solo and you can save money doing it yourself. You’ll be glad you did this when winter sets in and the cold air stays outside where it belongs.
7. Exposed pipes are best wrapped up to keep them from bursting in the middle of winter. A little preventive maintenance such as wrapping up pipes can save you dollars when your pipes don’t burst causing damage to your home.
8. Change the direction of your ceiling fans to circulate the warm air back down to people level. This helps keep you and your room warmer on a cold chilly day.
9. Make sure to have all your snow equipment like snow shovels, boots, gloves, and other equipment on hand before the rain and snow fall. Sometimes stores run out of these items if you try to buy them when everyone else is doing the same thing.
10. Make sure to cover your summer equipment or put it away to keep it dry and ready for the glorious time of year we call spring time.

By keeping on top of these maintenance items on a bi-yearly basis you can feel confident that one of your biggest investments will look great and be in tip-top shape for years to come. Have a great holiday season!!

Cheers,

Kimberly Blisard, agent in Ashland, OR

Windermere Van Vleet and Associates

541-625-9222